Systems and methods for inferring and forecasting viewership and demographic data for unmonitored media networks

Abstract

Currency data regarding the monitored media network including a first viewership count indicating a first number of viewers viewing the monitored media network during a first series of time intervals and demographic information regarding the first number of viewers may be received. Set-top-box viewership data regarding the monitored media network may also be received from a set top box. The set-top-box viewership data may include a second viewership count indicating a second number of viewers viewing the monitored media network during a second series of time intervals. The first and second viewership counts may be transformed into first and second series of data, respectively. The first and second series of data may be compared to with one another determine factors and/or coefficients, which may be applied to the second viewership count to infer and/or forecast demographic information for the second viewership count. The method is generalized to unmonitored networks.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer implemented method comprising:
 receiving currency data regarding a monitored media network form a source of the currency data, the currency data including a first viewership count indicating a first number of viewers viewing the monitored media network during a first series of time intervals and demographic information regarding the first number of viewers;   receiving set-top-box viewership data regarding the monitored media network from a set top box, the set-top-box viewership data including a second viewership count indicating a second number of viewers viewing the monitored media network during a second series of time intervals;   transforming the first viewership count into a first series of data;   transforming the second viewership count into a second series of data, wherein the transformation of first viewership count and the transformation of the second viewership count facilitate comparison of the first series of data to the second series of data;   comparing the first and second series of data to determine one or more factors; and   applying the factors to the second viewership count to infer demographic information for the second viewership count.   
     
     
         2 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 comparing the inferred demographic information to the demographic information included in the received currency data regarding the first number of viewers; and   calculating one or more error metrics to estimate the quality of a representation of the inferred demographic information.   
     
     
         3 . The computer implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 refining a set of basis networks using measures of correlation and similarity of scale to generate an improved set of factors and coefficients;   using the improved set of factors and coefficients to infer a corrected demographic information for the second viewership count.   
     
     
         4 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 combining the inferred demographic information and the second viewership count to inferred currency data for the monitored media network.   
     
     
         5 . The computer implemented method of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 comparing the inferred currency data to the received currency data; and   calculating one or more error metrics to be applied to the factors and coefficients responsively to the comparison.   
     
     
         6 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving viewership data regarding an unmonitored media network, the viewership data including a third viewership count indicating a third number of viewers viewing the monitored media network during a third series of time intervals;   transforming the received viewership data regarding the unmonitored media network into a third series of data; and   computing coefficients and using the factors and coefficients to infer demographic information for the third viewership count.   
     
     
         7 . The computer implemented method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 combining the inferred demographic information and the third viewership count into inferred currency data for the unmonitored media network.   
     
     
         8 . The computer implemented method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 designing a pricing scheme for the sale of viewership opportunities provided by the unmonitored media network responsively to the inferred currency data regarding the unmonitored media network.   
     
     
         9 . The computer implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein the transforming of at least one of the first viewership count, the second viewership count, and the third viewership count includes execution of at least one of a factoring process and a normalization process. 
     
     
         10 . The computer implemented method of  claim 6 , wherein the viewership data including the third viewership count is received from a plurality of set top boxes. 
     
     
         11 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the inferred demographic data includes at least one of viewership age, gender, preferred language, race, and ethnicity. 
     
     
         12 . A computer implemented method comprising:
 receiving currency data regarding a monitored media network form a source of the currency data, the currency data including a first viewership count indicating a first number of viewers viewing the monitored media network during a first series of time intervals and demographic information regarding the first number of viewers;   receiving set-top-box viewership data regarding the monitored media network from a set top box, the set-top-box viewership data including a second viewership count indicating a second number of viewers viewing the monitored media network during a second series of time intervals;   transforming the first viewership count into a first series of data;   transforming the second viewership count into a second series of data, wherein the transformation of first viewership count and the transformation of the second viewership count facilitate comparison of the first series of data to the second series of data;   comparing the first and second series of data to determine one or more factors and coefficients; and   applying the factors and coefficients to the first viewership count to forecast demographic information for the first viewership count.